WAVEWALK KAYAKS

I have been looking for a kayak or canoe that fits my needs for quite a while.

I love the sport, and find it a relaxing and useful mode of transportation. However, as I get “older” I found that the body does not necessarily wants to do everything my mind wants to do. I am 65 years old, 5’9” and 190 lbs having had back surgery a few years ago.

Jose stand up paddling in his W500 fishing kayak, Mission Bay, San Diego

The hours on end I used to spend paddling along the coast, around lakes and down rivers looking for thinks to photograph, enjoying the views or drowning some worms became a painful experience after half an hour of sitting in a standard kayak in the infamous “L” position.

I could not find a comfortable position and after about one hour I could not get out of the kayak in a graceful manner (actually I had to roll out on the dirt) and was unable to straighten for several hours.

I had to either stop doing what I enjoy, or find a different way to do it.

After a lot of web surfing I found Wavewalk’s website and was intrigued by the new design and its claim of ergonomic delights. I was disappointed that there were no dealers or a place where I could actually try it (or even see one,) other than in pictures and You-Tube videos, but my back kept screaming to try it and get my mind off my back, literally, so I called Yoav and ordered a W500.

As soon as it arrived, I went to one of the lakes north of Tucson, AZ and gave it a try. The lake was very busy with many motor boats so the water was choppy with lots of wakes. The W handled well and although at times felt a bit unstable, after getting used to it, it became easier to handle and I enjoyed the outing.

FIRST TRIP TO SAN DIEGO

The following weekend I made a trip to San Diego and took the W with me to give it a more thorough workout. In the calm water of Mission Bay it felt a lot more stable and easier to handle. I paddled for several hours without discomfort to my back.

Only when I tried to turn inside the kayak to paddle the opposite way (just like Yoav does it) I lost my balance and the W flipped… As I said, the body does not necessarily wants to do everything my mind wants…

I purchased a Solo Canoe paddle 280 cm. [9'1"] which is light, and can be broken down and reassembled at different featherings. After all, I am not going to do any extreme kayaking…

Heron on the river bank

LONG CAMPING TRIPS

I went camping in a long and narrow lake in the northern mountains of Arizona. I loaded it with a lot of camping equipment, water, food, etc for a 4-day trip, which was too much, and the overloaded W was riding too low on the water, and felt unstable. So the following day, with an unloaded and lighter W, I was able to paddle 14 miles in it and for about 6 hours, including breaks, side trips, etc. without discomfort, something I have not been able to do in other kayaks.

MY WIFE’S EXPERIENCE

I also tried using my W as a romantic canoe “a la Venice” with my wife in a small lake south of Tucson. However, she was very tense, and the W felt unstable since I had to compensate for any movement she made. It turned out not to be such a romantic event after all. My wife also tried going out with me in tandem one more time in San Diego, but we flipped at launching and she won’t get back in it unless I put on some outriggers … They are on order. She is going with me come hell or low water!

[Editor's note: You should not attempt paddling a W kayak in tandem unless both paddlers are well acquainted with operating it as solo paddlers. Unlike canoes, kayaks are basically solo boats, and therefore tandem kayaking is usually considered an advanced application.]

CONCLUSION

I am using and enjoying the W very much. It is fun to be able to spend long hours on a kayak again and do the things I enjoy such as photography, fishing and sightseeing in the water. Overall, I am happy with the W.

Those are my first, second, third and fourth impressions. I hope they help!

Jose

It feels great to be the editor and publisher of such an interesting and dynamic media outlet that has quite a few followers, many of which are not (yet?) W kayakers or anglers -

We started this blog in January 2008, as an experiment, and so far it’s doing pretty well, apparently:
504 published posts and 2,389 published comments (and 17,220 unpublished comments a.k.a. SPAM)…

The key players in this success are of course all those who’ve contributed their insight, and shared their experience in the form of reviews, stories, reports, comments, pictures and video.

THANK YOU!

Yoav

The W300 first appeared in April of 2004, and it was called ‘W boat’. Later, its name was changed to W-Kayak, and in May 2009, when we launched the new W500 series, we renamed the early series W300.

The W300 represented a breakthrough in paddling and fishing, from every aspect:

It introduced stand up paddling into the kayak world, as well as stand up fishing. To this date, no other kayak has shown such performance, except the W500.
The W300 also introduced the W saddle, and the Riding position, as well as the freedom to switch between a variety of comfortable positions – none of which is the infamous L kayaking position.
The W300 broke the records in kayak mobility and versatility, and was the first kayak to enable its operator to move fore and aft along the saddle, thus enabling to change the boat’s center of gravity (CG), and thereby gain the best control in strong wind, breaking waves, and fast current.
This was also the first kayak to offer leaning into the turn as means to facilitate turning – a feature that some kayak designers had argued was a fiction, until we proved it to be real in online demo videos

The W300 gained fans in 4 continents, among kayakers and canoeists as well and anglers, who outfitted it with electric motors, outboard gas engines, and sails.

The W300 made people happy, whether they were 80 years old, or 5 years old. It was used for both solo and tandem paddling, and I loved playing with it in the ocean surf.

The W300 enabled people with sore backs and other health issues to paddle and fish again – Without it they would have had to stay at home, or go in a motorboat.

The W300 took 3 years to design and build. Jo Mares, a boat builder and offshore kayak fisherman from Key West, Florida, said about his 2006 W300: -”…still thrilled with the W and not have been able to improve the basic concept without detracting from it in some other way. The W really is the best”
This was an important sentence for me, since it forced me to work harder in designing the next generation of W kayak – the W500 series. The challenge we took upon ourselves was to improve everything… and today, one year after we launched the W500, it’s possible to say we succeeded:

1. The W500 weighs just a little more than the W300, yet it’s much bigger and roomier.
2. The W500 is just 12″ longer than the W300, yet its redesigned hulls make it go much faster.
3. The W500 is just 3.5″ wider than the W300, yet it’s much more stable, without being harder to paddle.
4. The W500 is a true tandem kayak, yet small children and elderly people can control it very easily.

Customers who already owned a W300 and tried the W500 unanimously said that the W500 was much better. Some of them sold their old W300, and some kept them as ‘guest’ boats

New customers kept ordering the W500, and praising it, and the W300 became so much less popular in comparison to the new, bright star, that we finally decided to discontinue it. However, we’ve kept all the customer reviews on it on our website – for sentimental reasons  – We simply love this boat

“Finally, here are some pictures for you from Alaska. We’re very happy with the Kayak, she’s brain dead easy to use.
We took her out for a few practice runs. Mostly right by our place (Hammer Slough) and Woodpecker Cove.
My wife, Bev (The Admiral) really likes the kayak, and the dog (Critter) is very comfortable now that he has rug velcroed onto the bridge deck.
I’m not totally comfortable paddling standing, yet, but I will get there.

Not much time for kayaking yet, but as soon as I get the mother ship back into full service (2 years of sitting don’t do wonders for a boat) we’re going to be using the kayak as our crab pot and shore boat.
I’m also going to use her for some halibut fishing.

Carl”

Have fun watching this movie

This is the first time I try paddling in tandem with a paddler that’s heavier than me, while I paddle standing up.
Craig is 215 lbs, and I’m 200 lbs, and with our gear etc. our combined weight was 440 lbs, and that’s 80 lbs above the max recommended load capacity for the W500, which is 360 lbs.
It was fun, and pretty easy, although the overloaded W500 was somehow sluggish.

Kayak fishing hype is everywhere, but the truth has a value of its own, since it can be demonstrated and proven in real life:

Kayak stability without comfort and safety is a misnomer, and so is kayak fishing standing and stand up paddling without comfort and safety.
It is not reasonable to expect a paddler or angler to rise up from the L position to a standing position, and it is reckless to expect that they’ll sit down from a standing position in case they lose balance, which always happens when you stand up in or on top a kayak.
This is where the 14 inches high W kayak saddle shines…

I mean it.

Craig Masterman came to visit yesterday. Craig is a saltwater kayak fly fisherman who’s been fly fishing out of his W300 for the past couple of years, mainly in Cape Cod and Florida.
He enjoyed paddling the W500, and fishing from it, and soon he’ll get his own, yellow W500.

Craig and I paddled the W500 kayak in tandem, and we both were surprised to see how easy it was, and how well the boat performed considering it was visibly overloaded, as our combined weight exceeded the maximum recommended load by 20% : Craig weighs 215 lbs, I weigh 200 lbs, and with our paddles shoes and clothes the total load was about 440 lbs, while the max recommended load for the W500 is 360 lbs.

The kayak moved at a reasonable speed, presented no significant balance issues, and was even pretty easy to maneuver considering the unusual circumstances.

The last time I did something like was when Jeff McGovern to visit me back in October of 2008. Before that I had paddled the W300 in tandem during demos, with (sometimes frightened…) clients, one of which was Craig, back in the summer of 2008

And one last thing: The W500 is such a pleasure to paddle because it’s only 28.5 inches wide, unlike common fishing kayaks that are much wider, and therefore are slow, clumsy, and difficult to paddle with or without a rudder.

Yoav

Dave Baumbaugh drove all the way from Pennsylvania to Sharon, Massachusetts, where Wavewalk is located. He wanted to make sure that he won’t be buying the wrong fishing kayak… Upon his arrival Dave took one look at the W500 on display, and said: -”The picture you have on your website isn’t doing justice to this boat!”  Then, Dave declined our offer to take the kayak for a test ride, saying: -”I can see it’s what need just by looking at it.” When we attached the 11.4 foot long W500 on his big pickup truck, the boat looked so small it nearly disappeared, and Dave drove back home with it.

Says Dave:
I am still in awe at how easy this kayak is to handle and how stable it is.
First time in the kayak on the water and I spent about two hours just getting the feel of it. I tried paddling and even stood up and paddled, I think that if I am going to do much of that I’ll need a longer paddle.
I had no problems getting in or out of the kayak and even tried it from a dock and didn’t get wet. All of this was on a lake. My next venture will be to a very large river to see how well it does there. I am anxious to see and feel how the twin hulls react where there is significant current and rocks/boulders.

What really got me going was that I mounted a set of oar locks and now the electric motor guys better look out. It is simply amazing how fast you can go with out a lot of effort.

The one pic is from Easter when we had the family over and as you can see the kids had fun in the kayak. The other pics are so you can see how I attached the oar locks and the stabilizer bar between them.

From Wayne Taylors’ picture on the web site I could see that you placed your locks at the third rib and I used that as a pattern. Since I have the W500 I don’t have the vertical height at the top of the compartment that Wayne’s old W300 had. To compensate for the angles I used a 2X4 and measured in an 3/4 inch from the edge and the used a skill saw set at 45 degree to cut my stock. I also used 1/8 X 2 in aluminum stock as backing material on the outside of the cut 2X4 and inside where the nuts go. All of my material is 12 in long and I ended up with the sides flexing to much. I solved that by using a piece of 1/8 X 2 X 28 1/2 inch aluminum stock and I drilled a 1/2 in hole in each end for the oar locks. That little trick took out all of the hull flex and now I can apply as much pressure as I need when rowing.

I also made a rod holder using a plant stand that straddles the saddle perfectly and slides under the edge of the cockpit.

I have had it out three more times. Once fishing and the others just getting the feel of it, even caught and released some fish (no camera with me). I even tried it in the river and soon learned that the river trips will definitely be warm weather trips. Although, I have yet to take on any water the river was just to swift to row or paddle against it. We’ll see what happens when it comes down a few feet and warms up a little.

Dave Baumbaugh

New: Watch movies of Dave’s fishing kayak rigged with rowing oars >>

Since 2007, the movie Walking On Waves has shown kayak paddlers and anglers what a W300 fishing kayak can do in the ocean surf, and that’s something no other kayak to this day has been able to come close to showing, including SOT fishing kayaks that are up to 42 inches wide, that is over a foot wider than the 25″ wide W300.
Interestingly, no one has shown anything similar with any fishing kayak that’s outfitted with outriggers, or features integrated outriggers, since these fishing kayaks are simply neither stable enough, nor can they they offer the maneuverability and control the W kayak design has.

At first, the movie was uploaded to Google Videos, but after some time it was moved to YouTube, where it got 25,000 views.

More interestingly, no paddling or kayak fishing magazine – whether printed or online, saw the importance of this stand up paddling performance, although they’ve all published articles about other fishing kayaks that allegedly offer stand up fishing, when in fact what they offer are tedious, lackluster and often hazardous gimmicks that not too many people seem to take seriously.

No wonder these media don’t benefit from much trust from their readers…

Most people think that paddling a kayak in flat water isn’t very interesting. They are right, when sit-in and SOT kayaks are considered, but flat wrong when W kayaks are:

This movie is one of my favorites. It shows the W300 performing like no other paddle craft before, and highlights some of the W important advantages for paddling, touring and kayak fishing.

The reason I chose to post it again on this blog is because I recently discovered how to add annotations to YouTube videos

Yoav